I would like to begin by stating that it was fairly easy for me to look at a poem through the act of performance. I thought about what the text was performing and what I was meant to get from the poem by reading it, or essentially performing it while reading aloud. As I began to read the poem, I pictured myself as this woman who was in front of her husband, waiting for him to die, and thought about how I would feel if in her position.
On the issue of performance, "Gertrude, or Fidelity Till Death" in my opinion was a perfect example of performance because we are able to imagine what this woman is going through when watching her husband. I can almost see this as being on stage and watching the woman grasp for her husband and crying for him because he is close to death. It is especially evident in the first stanza where she is looking up at her husband and the starry night, describing what she sees, "Her hands were clasp'd, her dark eyes rais'd,/ The breeze threw back her hair;/Up to the fearful wheel she gaz'd---/ All that she lov'd was there/ The nigh was round her clear and cold/ The holy heaven above,/ Its pale stars watching to behold/ The might of earthly love" (33-34). As she performs in front of the audience, you get a sense of how much her heart breaks for the man she loves and how she at times looks up to the heavens for a sign of how to get through this moment. When I think of performance, I immediately go to a stage and see the poem being performed in front of others, who are able to take on the emotion that is being put forth by the woman. One example of how the audience would feel the emotion from the woman is when the wind picks up and she wants to use the wind to make sure the one she loves can hear her, "While she sat striving with despair/ Beside his tortured form,/ And pouring her deep soul in prayer/ Forth on the rushing storm" (34-35). It is beautiful language such as this one that adds to the idea of performance in the poem.
On the issue of performance, "Gertrude, or Fidelity Till Death" in my opinion was a perfect example of performance because we are able to imagine what this woman is going through when watching her husband. I can almost see this as being on stage and watching the woman grasp for her husband and crying for him because he is close to death. It is especially evident in the first stanza where she is looking up at her husband and the starry night, describing what she sees, "Her hands were clasp'd, her dark eyes rais'd,/ The breeze threw back her hair;/Up to the fearful wheel she gaz'd---/ All that she lov'd was there/ The nigh was round her clear and cold/ The holy heaven above,/ Its pale stars watching to behold/ The might of earthly love" (33-34). As she performs in front of the audience, you get a sense of how much her heart breaks for the man she loves and how she at times looks up to the heavens for a sign of how to get through this moment. When I think of performance, I immediately go to a stage and see the poem being performed in front of others, who are able to take on the emotion that is being put forth by the woman. One example of how the audience would feel the emotion from the woman is when the wind picks up and she wants to use the wind to make sure the one she loves can hear her, "While she sat striving with despair/ Beside his tortured form,/ And pouring her deep soul in prayer/ Forth on the rushing storm" (34-35). It is beautiful language such as this one that adds to the idea of performance in the poem.